The Socket

With an integrated memory controller, Intel needed a new pinout for Nehalem and the first version with three 64-bit DDR3 memory channels features a 1366-pin LGA interface:

LGA-1366 (left) vs. LGA-775 (right)

The socket is noticeably bigger than LGA-775 as is the mounting area for heatsinks. You can't reuse LGA-775 heatsinks and instead must use a heatsink with mounting holes more spread apart. As far as we can tell, the same push-pin mounting mechanism from LGA-775 is present in Nehalem which is disappointing.

With a larger socket and more pins, the CPU itself is obviously bigger. Here's a shot of our Nehalem compared to a Core 2 Duo E8500:

Nehalem (left) vs. Penryn (right)

Nehalem (left) vs. Penryn (right)

Intel will obviously have dual-channel versions of Nehalem in the future, unfortunately it looks like they will use a smaller socket for mainstream versions of the chip (LGA-1160?). We won't have to deal with socket segmentation just yet and it is always possible that Intel will choose to stand behind a single socket for the majority of the desktop market, reserving LGA-1366 for a Skulltrail-like high end but the strategy is unclear at this point.

No more FSB = no more overclocking??????
Enthusiasts might jump ship if overclocking usually brings 20% extra performance, all amd have to do is come within 10% on performance and below on price? Reply

Anand, you could clear up some confusion if you could specify the version of windows you ran. The screen shots of some of your benchmarks show 64-bit Vista, yet your scores are inline with 32-bit Vista.... it makes a difference.
Reply

Will the new IMC support ECC RAM? And if so, what are the odds the consumer versions will too? I've had a bit of bad luck with memory errors in the past. Since then I swear by ECC memory, even though it costs me a bit of performance. :) Reply